Talk:Warder Clyde Allee

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 14:39, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Clarification
I removed the cautionary note that was in the text of the article, as I believe I have fixed the problem. I believe the that referred to Allee as being an Associate Professor and then becoming an Assistant Professor was just an error of transcription. The source that I cited clearly shows that he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in 1921, not 1923. Please notify me if there are any problems with my edit. Deyyaz [ Talk 04:58, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

Bibliography - Bucknell Class Assignment
The following books and research articles provide relevant information about the life and work of Warder Clyde Allee:

Allee, Warder Clyde. Cooperation Among Animals with Human Implications. New York: Henry Schuman, Inc., 1951.

Courchamp, Franck, Ludek Berec, and Joanna Gascoigne. "Allee Effects in Ecology and Conservation." Cambridge Journals Online. no. 1 (2009): 80.

Emerson, A.E, and T. Park. "Warder Clyde Allee: Ecologist and Ethologist ." Science. no. 3150 (1955): 686-687.

Hale, Monica. Ecology in Education. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Johnson, Willis H. "Resolution of Respect: Warder Clyde Allee, 1885-1955." Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. no. 3 (1955): 99-100

Mitman, Gregg. "From the Population to Society: The Cooperative Metaphors of W.C. Allee and A.E. Emerson." Journal of the History of Biology. no. 2 (1988): 173-194.

Mitman, Gregg. The State of Nature: Ecology, Community andAmerican Social Thought, 1900-1950. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Newman, James R. What is Science? Twelve Eminent Scientists and Philosophers Explain Their Various Fields to the Layman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955.

Lizziewalters (talk) 01:42, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Outline for Revision of Lead Section
As a member of the History of Ecology course at Bucknell University, I have been assigned to write an outline for a potential lead section of this article on Warder Clyde Allee. This is only a first draft and open to any corrections, comments or recommendations! Thanks -Lizziewalters (talk) 19:55, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Warder Clyde Allee was born on June 5,1885 in Bloomingdale, Indiana and was an accomplished Zoologist and Ecologist. Allee is recognized to be one of the great pioneers of American Ecology. He was best known and recognized for his research on social behavior, aggregations and distributions of animals in aquatic as well as terrestrial environments. Allee was a former instructor at the University of Chicago where he wrote over 200 research papers and published more than a dozen books. His most notable book being, Principles of Animal Ecology, which was published in December of 1949. Allee dedicated his life to biological work and remained active in the field until his death on March 18, 1955 at the age of 70 in Gainsville, Florida.

Allee attended Earlham College and upon his graduation in 1908, Clyde Allee pursued advanced studies at the University of Chicago where he received his PhD and graduated summa cum laude in 1912. During his last two years of graduate work at the University of Chicago, Clyde Allee began his teaching career as the Assistant of the Department of Zoology. This began the journey of his teaching career resulting in thirty years tenure at the University of Chicago from 1921-1950. Warder Clyde Allee brought his teaching skills to many other institutions across the country. He was strongly influenced by Frank R. Lillie, head of the Department of Zoology at the University of Chicago and one of the founders of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. Warder Clyde Allee gained interest in the interactions and patterns of the distribution of marine mammals during his time as an instructor at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole in Massachusetts from 1914-1921.

In 1923, Warder Clyde Allee began to write a series of papers entitled, Animal Aggregations. Eight years later, he published his findings in a book under the same name. The results of Clyde Allee’s research demonstrated the existence of an unconscious drive within species for fellow individuals of the same species. This research helped to prove that under crowding was detrimental to some animals. Allee’s research also helped to describe protocooperation, where two species interact with one another in a beneficial way that is not essential to the survival of either organism. It should also be noted that Allee’s biological basis of democracy arrived at a time when the future of world politics and human kind’s morality were at question themselves. Allee was committed to world peace and this commitment anteceded his theory of sociality.

Clyde Allee remained active in the field of Biology throughout his life, taking over as managing editor of the journal, Physiological Zoology in 1957. He also chaired the Committee of Ecology of Animal Populations of National Research Council, was named fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950 and was a trustee for the Marine Biological Laboratory from 1932 until his death in 1955.

Wiki Work: Peer Review
For Professor Stuhl's History of Ecology class one of the articles I decided to peer review was that of Warder Clyde Allee. In order to review this article, I used the five elements of a high-quality article, which are separated into five paragraphs below.

The lead section of this article is understandable and does a good job of summarizing the article’s key points. It highlights why Allee was known and what he was best known for, while also including where he was born and where he attending college. This article also includes when his most significant research took place and what he remained active doing until his death in 1955. I do not have a suggestion for this lead section because I believe it does a great job of accurately and briefly summarizing Allee and his life and what the article is set to include.

The structure of this article is in fact clear. The lead section is strong, and the subsequent sections incorporate information that was briefly mentioned within the lead section providing more details for the reader. There are many different subsections, which make it easy for the reader to find information about Allee’s early life, his university career, his professional career, his personal life and a few other minor categories. In my opinion, I believe the section on Allee’s personal life would be more powerful if it were placed right after the section on his early life rather than after this university and professional career. I also think that the commemoration and death subsection could use a bit more information just to emphasize the legacy Allee left and possibly, if it is know, the cause of his death. This could just provide interesting information, if it is unknown it is not necessary.

In my opinion, the various aspects of Allee’s life are for the most part balanced well, however I do think that a little bit of expansion on The Allee Effect would be beneficial to the article. Otherwise, almost all of the subheadings receive equal coverage, except that of the Professional Career is a bit longer. This makes sense because that took up a majority of his life, and covers multiple points within the section about his endeavors.

I believe that this article does a good job of emphasizing facts and using neutral language. The majority of this article includes facts and information rather than that of opinions whether they are positive or negative. Since this article is somewhat short, I believe that by adding some information, both positive and negative opinions, the article could be enhanced. However when adding these positive and negative elements, the person editing this article needs to make sure they are coming from reliable sources that provide accurate and important information.

In terms of reliable sources, the reference list on Allee’s Wikipedia article is quite extensive. I believe that many of these sources are reliable because many of them are from Encyclopedia Britannica or the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. Also, a biographical memoir of Allee is referenced, which is an important piece, which includes a large amount of information about his life. There are also external links, which lead the reader to other high-quality pieces concerning Allee in case readers want further information or to find where certain information in the article was found. In the bibliography section, there are some primary resources mentioned, which show how his actual words and thoughts were used within the article. They are also posted for readers to be able to reference and further research.

Hope this helps!

Eak016 (talk) 16:14, 14 April 2014 (UTC)Emily Kookogey

Peer Review
Hi! The article looks good and you provide a lot of information about Allee’s life. The lead section is concise but introduces his most significance ideas while giving the reader a clear idea of who Allee was. There was one in text citation that used the author’s last name instead of a numbered footnote that could be changed to keep the citations consistent, but it appears the citations are from reliable sources. I like that the Early Life section stresses Allee’s merit and intelligence but I was not sure that the sentence about his father was completely necessary to include and there was one sentence that the verb tense should be changed to past tense. The Professional Career section does a good job at highlighting Allee’s important work. I was a little unclear by this sentence “The results of Clyde Allee’s research demonstrated the existence of an unconscious drive within species for fellow individuals of the same species” and thought that it may be helpful to make the connection how “This research helped to prove that under crowding was detrimental to some animals”. I thought the section connecting Allee’s political and ecological beliefs was extremely interesting and relevant for readers to understand how his political surrounding influenced his scientific ideas. Lastly, it may be helpful for readers if you explicitly state what the Allee Effect is. Additionally, I agree with Emily that it may be more effective to put his personal life section after his early life section. Overall, your article is very informative and maintains a neutral tone throughout the entire article while maintaining a balance between sections. Dcbru (talk) 05:07, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Peer Review #3
The previous two peer reviews have done a solid job of both recognizing the effort put into this article and highlighting possible areas of improvement. I will do my best not to reiterate or restate anything that has been said before.

In terms of the lead in section, I would agree it does a great job of giving the key points that will be discussed later as well as enough information that a reader can quickly gather about Allee. That being said, some of the details regarding where he went to school might be better in the "University career" or "Professional Career" sections as they are more background information than a main idea. Also the last sentence in the lead in section about who his wife was ok, although it might be better placed in the "Personal Life" section. As already said, the structure and coverage of this article is very well done and easy to follow as a reader. In terms of neutrality, you've done a great job of keeping language and the information presented unbiased which not only adds merit to the article but also indicates a significant amount of research on your end as well.

Your references and sources listed are reputable and each appears to be utilized while not relying on a single source too much.

Overall the article is well written, well organized, and exhibits the five elements of a high-quality article. The only thing I may add would additional pictures or diagrams to help illustrate some of the ideas and information presented.

Dwk014 (talk) 06:27, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

Controversial claims

 * Many biologists and historians believe that Warder Clyde Allee's reputation was diminished by the work of another ecologist, George C. Williams.[10] Williams's work, Adaptation and Natural Selection (1996), refutes Allee's research on group cooperation by stressing the importance of individual selection and providing samples that invalidated the idea of group selection.

I'm not sure that is an entirely accurate summary as "group selection models have seen a resurgence since the mid-1990s with increasing popularity."   I think this needs to be addressed. Viriditas (talk) 01:05, 19 October 2014 (UTC)